Recently Siliconera also revealed that game retailers have trouble really accepting these "cutesy" games into their store inventory. Who could blame 'em? They seem to have a tendency to be crap as of late (or simply don't take themselves too seriously; riddled with cliches, and anime archetypes we have all seen a BILLION times before [every Disgaea seems to poke fun of tiny tits...it's so old, it's not funny]).

Fun fact: the idea for this game came from none other than Kazuya Ninou.

So basically he went from making a game that encompasses everything that is good and right about RPGs to making a game that is the EXACT OPPOSITE.

That's correct, but it isn't necessarily his fault. Image Epoch seems to be using Ninou as kind of a figurehead these days (lends games like Fate/Extra and Criminal Girls a bit more credibility, even if he's barely involved), so the publishers and management at Image Epoch could well be dictating the kind of concept they want him to draw up.

NIS is just as bad as Idea Factory as far as strategy titles go. Both of them release and rehash fanservice grinding games that have very little strategic difficulty. All of NIS's SRPGs follow the same Disgaea model with different skins, same with Idea Factory and their Spectral Force model. They also both have insanely deluded fanbases who go nuts at the suggestion that their favorite games aren't SO DEEP OMG.